“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

We started the Instream tests and our own envelope tests in August of 1965. In October my first book was coming out, and Peg Gallagher, a reporter for the Elmira Star Gazette, interviewed me. I’d known her slightly in the past, but now she and her husband and Rob and I became good friends. Bill is assistant advertising director of the Star Gazette, and he and Peg were soon leaving for a vacation in Puerto Rico. We decided to set up an experiment.

We wouldn’t communicate at all through usual means. Instead, we would ask Seth if he could “tune in” on the Gallaghers during their vacation. During their trip we would substitute this experiment for our envelope tests. We knew that Peg and Bill were going to San Juan, but that was all we knew. Besides, neither Rob nor I have ever been to Puerto Rico.

We were in the middle of a Seth session and Seth was giving his impressions of the Gallaghers’ trip. As I sat in my favorite rocker speaking as Seth, suddenly I found myself in the back seat of a cab. The next instant the cab took such a sharp turn to the right that I was shoved over into the corner of the seat. For a minute I was really frightened. I wasn’t used to being comfortably seated in the living room one minute and in the back seat of a swiftly moving cab the next!

He didn’t mention my sensations when I was thrown into the corner of the cab, though. Was this because he didn’t feel them? Or because I was certain to remember these myself? And consider this puzzler: Granted my consciousness traveled from Elmira to San Juan in space, what about time? The session was held on Monday, October 25, 1965, but the incident happened to the Gallaghers one week earlier, on Monday, October 17. Yet I lived that experience just as vividly as though it transpired at that moment in Puerto Rico. (Seth also gave other correct impressions of that same trip.)

The next episode didn’t involve Seth directly, except that I was following his directions in the use of the Inner Senses. I decided to see what impressions of the Gallagher trip I could get on my own. So one morning that same week I lay down, closed my eyes, and gave myself the suggestion that I would find Peg and Bill.

Doors opened off the veranda, which extended the full length of the motel. I wondered if this was where the Gallaghers were staying. Instantly I knew that it was, and that the center door led to their room. Peg and Bill weren’t in sight, though. Before beginning the experiment at 11 A.M., I had set the alarm clock for 11:30. Now it rang. My consciousness returned so quickly to my body that my physical head was swimming. I sat up in dismay—couldn’t I find out more? Couldn’t I see a sign, or get a more definite idea of the location?

Talk about being excited! Immediately I drew a diagram of the motel and surrounding area. I couldn’t wait for the Gallaghers to return, so I could check this and the Seth impressions. I asked Peg to draw a diagram of their motel and its nearby neighborhood. Peg’s diagram matched mine! My description of the motel was correct, including the center door that led to their room. The motel was on St. Thomas, an island near Puerto Rico. Peg and Bill were there the day of my experiment, and the following day.

How much more fun this sort of thing was than the Instream tests, which we were also conducting! Even our own envelope series was dry in comparison. We mailed copies of the Gallagher material to Dr. Instream. I was really excited about the whole thing and waited eagerly for his comments. I took it for granted that he wouldn’t consider that we had any scientific evidence, but we did have the nearly identical sketches, and the impressions were correct. “He may not consider this scientific enough,” I said to Rob, “but he has to admit, at the very least, that clairvoyance occurred.”